February is my birth month; I was born on the 9th. One of my earliest memories has to do with the day I turned four. In the foyer of my childhood home in Waycross, Georgia, we had this huge hall tree made of burled wood, with ornate metal hooks for coats and hats and a full-length mirror that was losing its silver lining - but not for me because I was four years old and quite proud of it. There was some kind of rounded shelf at the bottom of this massive piece of furniture, just perfect for a little girl to step up on to see what four years old looked like. I remember inspecting myself for an overnight change and being a little disappointed that four looked very much like three.
I’m pretty sure, in a week or so, I’ll look at myself and discover that sixty-one looks much like sixty. All I can say is those other birthdays must have been hell because sixty looks absolutely nothing like four.
They say that, by the time you attain a certain age, you have the face you deserve. If that’s true, I must deserve quite a few wrinkles because I’m overrun with them. While some of my errant skin arrived on my face and body from too much sun as a teenager and too many White Wine Spritzers as a young woman, many of my worry and laugh lines were gifts from my three children, whom I love more than life itself. And now those children are going about creating other little beings for me to worry over and marvel at as I head into my future birthdays, God willing. Pretty soon I’m going to be mistaken for one of those dried-up apple-face dolls everyone was making about twenty years ago (when I was a mere forty).
Back to the hall tree. I don’t know what happened to it. I do remember that it followed my family from Waycross to Savannah and then to Sunbury where my parents had a home after my brother and I grew up. I’m pretty sure they must have sold it or given it away when they moved to a retirement home.
I’d love to be able to step back up on that childhood memory one more time to wonder where all the years have gone.
What are your birthday memories?
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